Columbia, What Ivy League Really Means and Other Stuff (like too much food)

*written for April 18th, published today because I fell asleep before I could get all my pictures together*
I went to bed last night at two and got up at eight-thirty to go to an information session at Columbia University. Here's a tip if you've yet to book info sessions: 
1) Book them far in advance (or try to). 
2) You can also book them a couple days before (that's what I did in this case.) People usually book info sessions to hold the spot but may cancel.
3) You don't (always) need to book a tour. The tours are given by students and there isn't a max limit. You can tag along without registering. Do register for an info session. It rolls right into the tour. 
Columbia has amazing architecture, very neoclassical. Originally it was built in 1754 as King's College. It was renamed Columbia after its location was moved to Morningside Heights. Also, here's a fun fact: "Ivy League" refers to a sports division and has nothing to do with the school. Well, that clears up a lot of stuff.

Top/Bottom Left: Lowell Library with the Alma Mater. It's actually not a library anymore. The new library is the Butler Library. There were so many books in Lowell that it started sinking into its foundation. Some engineering students built a conveyer belt from Lowell to Butler to transport all the books. (There were millions!)

The information session was very well presented and the speaker was a really nice woman. She explained that Columbia has a core curriculum and it stresses the liberal arts. Up to this points I had point blank refused mom's suggestion of a liberal arts college, but after listening in at the info session it totally flipped my opinion around. I think I'd like to go to a liberal arts school now. I also really liked how the speaker emphasized that Columbia is not for everyone, and just because you don't get accepted it doesn't mean you are a failure in life. This applies for schools everywhere. You will get in somewhere. Maybe not the one you wanted but you will go to college somewhere. And in the end, you'll end up where you need to be.I think that was good for a lot of kids to hear. Columbia and Georgetown are both liberal arts schools, but I like Columbia better because it's smack-dab in New York City while still being a closed campus. It's the safest of all the NYC college campuses. I also found their core curriculum interesting. (It includes Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen.)

We (mom came along) met Padre, Syd, James, Tim and Small Man at Carnegie Deli for lunch. Holy snickerdoodle. Everything there is huge. I don't think the word "small" exists. It was really yummy and the cheesecake blew The Cheesecake Factory out of the water. Like, what is life if there is no cheesecake (or frozen hot chocolate, for that matter)? So what I'm really saying is that you should go to Carnegie Deli and order cheesecake (and latkes and corned beef). Carnivores welcome, vegetarians beware! There is a line (about 30 minutes or so), so make note!

Top L-R: cheesecake (!), latkes, corned beef hash, Carnegie salad, baked potato skins

I was going to go to the Met (and my bros were going to go play baseball) but I was in need of a post lunch nap (and so was Padre) so we went back to the hotel and I fell asleep for an hour. Obviously, I didn't make it to the Met (but I may go tomorrow!) but we did go get cupcakes!

We stopped at Magnolia Bakery first; it's located in Grand Central Terminal. A vanilla cupcake was $3.25. Was it worth it? No. Was it delicious? Yes. Should you buy one? Yes, and once is enough. The recipe is here. *Note: Georgetown Cupcake cupcakes are $2.75.
Baked by Melissa is literally right upstairs (because the metro is underground) so we went there. It's one dollar per mini cupcake and they are like...really really small. Petite. Charming. Only 50 calories (!). I recommend the cinnamon, red velvet, and chocolate peanut butter. They also had two limited-time flavors: lemon cheesecake (yum!) and easter egg (vanilla cake, vanilla frosting, rainbow chocolate bark and chocolate drizzle, stuffed with Bavarian cream. Also yum).

L-R: red velvet & cookies dough, lemon cheesecake, mint chocolate chip & peanut butter and jelly, chocolate fudge & chocolate chip pancake

Grand Central Terminal
It's huge! It connects the subway as well as trains going out of New York. Fairly easy to get lost.

This cupcake tour was on our way to the Staten Island Ferry, which we took to see the Statue of Liberty. (You don't get off and see the statue, you just ride by it.) Personally, I think the statue is a bit dinky, because I expected it to be the size of the World Trade Center. In reality it's probably only one-sixteenth the size? We then split up on the metro so that mom, Syd, Small Man and James could go to the top deck of the Empire State Building (you can buy your tickets online and your ticket gets you in at whatever time you decide to go and you have one year to do it). Small Man, who is finally reading real literature, wanted to chop down the doors at the top of the Empire State with an axe to get to Mount Olympus (Percy Jackson, anyone?) but I don't know if he'll do it. He has a major obstacle: they always check bags for weapons so in theory he wouldn't even make it past the ground floor entrance by my calculations. Good ol' Small Man.

An East Coast Birthday

The last time we were on vacation for my birthday was...a couple years ago. We were in Gulf Shores, Alabama. I think I really did enjoy this 17th birthday of mine, despite what seemed as a mundane start. We stayed overnight in Philadelphia so that we could see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. We got in at two in the morning, so it was a really, really late start. We didn't get out of the hotel until noon. However, we did manage to see both attractions, so it kind of worked out (more on that later).

On our way there, we walked through Philly and came across this giant old chess/Sorry! board. Philly is a charming city, but I personally did not like it. The air is horrible with a lot of smog and smoke from cigarettes. As you can see from the pictures below, it was a group effort to get Small Man up onto the Sorry! piece...

Independence Hall was really neat! However, be warned that you do need tickets to see the room where they signed the Declaration of Independence. We didn't know that so we didn't get to see the room, but there were other exhibits that didn't need tickets that we checked out and they were interesting. One building was the American Philosophical Society; they had a Thomas Jefferson exhibit with his original desk and draft of the Declaration of Independence. All I'm going to say is that men had really beautiful handwriting in the 18th century... but it's still hardly legible! (Also, no photos were allowed so I don't have any again, sorry!) The Liberty Bell was cool to see and had a 30 minute or so wait. It was smaller than I expected, but then again a lot of things have been smaller than I have expected (like the Hope Diamond).

Because we left the hotel so late, we didn't finish seeing everything until around three-ish, and then on our way out of Philly we stopped...for Philly Cheese Steaks (my mom, not me!). The place was called Sonny's Cheese Steaks in the Old City. You can find 'em on Yelp!. We hit a lot of traffic driving back to New Jersey to return our rental car and they ended up being closed. Luckily they had options for late-birds like us. Then we ran our butts off in order to make it to New York in time for our Serendipity reservation- and my birthday dinner. 

The frozen hot chocolate was divine I tell you. Absolutely divine. I won't hype it up any more than that or it may fail to meet expectations. We started with one (top right) and ended with nothing (bottom right). Everyone loved it. Even my brothers, who are devout and pious McDonald's devotees, like it, as well as the food at Serendipity 3 in general. After dinner we proceeded to order dessert... too much dessert. Needless to say, we walked the mile back to our hotel. And, just a note, make a reservation or you'll be stuck in a two hour-or-longer line. 

We sang "First Time in Forever" ("Frozen" reference, anyone?)  or whatever that song it called, and ended up with the lyrics "and for the first time in forever, I'm...going to be alone" because next year I'm going to college. HA it was a little sad but too funny. I liked this birthday. And I think I'm going to miss my family... a little.

The Last Day in Washington DC, aka the day that was cold.

This morning we managed to drag our bottoms out of the house by...ten-ish? Which is a vast improvement from the day before, when we arrived to DC at noon. It was freezing. Like, 30 degrees freezing. I was not prepared for the weather. It was cold, and to make things worse it was cold and windy. Better than the day before, though, because it had been cold, wet and windy, which is really just a nasty combination. I'll admit, I'm the wimpiest of the weather wimps. None is wimpier than I, Marissa Wu who is cold even in the summer except when temperatures exceed 80 degrees.
We got to Georgetown around 11and managed to get a walk-in information session, which was really nice because when I had tried to book one online, it had been full.
Georgetown University is really beautiful, with plenty of cherry blossoms and good cannons. The architecture is kind of Gothic I'd say, and Georgetown as a whole is quite quaint with a certain charm I really can't describe.

I think I'm going to apply here. It's only a few miles from DC, which is convenient. As an added bonus, Georgetown Cupcake is only a few blocks away. Can I say yum? We went before the information session and got red velvet, salted caramel, cherry cheesecake and peanut butter fudge. The salted caramel was some divine creation sent from the world beyond and the peanut butter fudge? Don't even get me started. (I swear though, Georgetown University is a good school, and I'm not just applying there because of Georgetown Cupcake, contrary to what mom thinks!)

Top right: salted caramel, cherry cheesecake, peanut butter fudge and red velvet.

I didn't try the cherry cheesecake, because personally I am not a fan, but my mom and Syd thought that it was good. It's an actual cheesecake baked into a cupcake liner topped with more cream cheese frosting. The red velvet cupcake was good, all cupcakes were soft (but not overly wet) with the right amount of frosting in proportion to cake. 

After Georgetown, we went back to the National Mall. When I first heard of the National Mall, I was really excited because I thought it meant shopping. Padre informed me that it was a very loooooooong grassy expanse that had the Smithsonian Institutions on either sides, ending with the Washington Monument, opposite the Capitol Building. It's nice, even if you can't go shopping. 

There was a reprise in the schedule and I returned to the Natural History Museum (but my bros had never been) and we went to the gems exhibit first. Small Man loves the "fancy rocks" so I told him to look at the Hope Diamond. He said "It's small. It's probably worth a lot of money but shouldn't be. The rock in the next room (his personal favorite) should be worth more." Right you are, Small Man. The kid valued a 50 pound block of quartz to be more valuable than an Indian blue diamond. I couldn't agree more. 

We also viewed a skeletons/mammals exhibit. If you like biology...go there. That's really all I have to say. I saw a turtle skeleton that was a tall as my dad almost. And my dad is like six feet tall, keep that in mind.

We also made it into the National Archives with a 35 minute wait. Sorry there are no photos, but we weren't allowed to take any! One of the security guards threatened to throw a lady out if she took any more pictures. BUT you should go to this museum! I saw the Magna Carta which is desperately underrated- everyone goes upstairs to look at the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution. The Magna Carta, if you need to brush up on history, was signed by King John creating a limited monarchy. It was the inspiration for the Constitution! The other three documents are barely legible because they are so faded, so I guess the major draw to them is "I saw them! I saw them!" Not that you could actually read anything but...

The National Archives exterior- awesome classical allusions (build in the Federal/Neoclassical Style).

 Our last stop was the Jefferson Memorial. If you have been following along with all of my posts so far, you may have noticed that I never mentioned the White House. I'm going to make a confession: we never visited it and we are not going to. It's half past two in the morning right now and we are in Philadelphia. Can you believe we visited DC and didn't go to the White House? (Just another reason to come back!) The Jefferson Memorial was incredibly breathtaking. It's directly on the Potomac river, and as the sun is setting it hits the water at that brilliant angle. The memorial itself is amazing- I don't understand why Washington just gets a pointy pencil.

So, in light of time, "that's all, folks!"
It's also my birthday...not sure how I feel about that.

What is Rain? + The Smithsonian (and not).

Let me just start out by saying that I love the East Coast. I will proceed with the fact that if I am not prepared for rain, I hate the East Coast. Today it rained. Today, it was also freezing OMG. It was so cold it starting hailing/snowing and Olaf could have come to life. My mom and I walked to three different museums that were "next door" to each other. Except that when I say "next door" I mean the equivalent of maybe 10 "next door" houses. This made walking in the rain really painful, and my jeans turned a few shades darker than they were originally. My favorite shoe was also completely soaked (I was only wearing one because my foot's broken, remember) and I learned that water-resistant and water-proof are two really different concepts.

Anyways, my mom and I went to the National Gallery of Art while my padre + other siblings went to the Air and Space Museum. (The Air and Space Museum is a Smithsonian institution, the art gallery is not.)

So the facade had a nice neoclassical flair and when we entered we ended up smack dab-in the rotunda, which looks a lot (and was probably inspired by) Andrea Palladio's Villa Rotunda (High Venicien Renaissance), as well as Hadrian's Dome. I saw a plethora artwork and even a handful of artists that I learned about in art history. Among them were Vigée Le Brun, West, David and Gainsborough.
Here's a Smarthistory video on "The Haywain" by John Constable. I didn't see this painting in particular, but I saw other works by him. I learned about "The Haywain" in art history.

My mom and I were going to go the the American History Museum afterwards, but it was raining hard so we ducked into the Museum of Natural History because it was the building over. This was were they filmed "Night at the Museum" so that was pretty cool.

So I'm not really a dinosaur person, or a bug person, or a marine person...so I guess I'm a rock person. The exhibit was pretty cool. And it made me want to wear more jewelry. See the three dudes top left? Most of the exhibit was donated by their families from their personal collections. Rock fanatics, holy snickerdoodle. I also saw the Hope Diamond, but there were a ton of people around it and bad lighting, so I didn't take a photo. You can read an article about it here though. My reaction when I saw it was that's small. Really small. I was expecting something the size of a small dinner plate. It was the size of a half dollar maybe. That's okay. I'm not wearing it any time soon.

The American History Museum is worth seeing. I got a history review course walking through the third floor, which covered American conflicts and how they shaped foreign and domestic policy. They had REAL artifacts like George Washington's and Andrew Jackson's uniforms, and muskets and swords and other various weapons, plus an actual helicopter that was in use until the '50's maybe.

They also had a chunk of the Berlin Wall which was neat and then a replica. We really didn't do much today because of the rain. What is rain? It's wet.

The Capitol Building, Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, plus How I Fell Asleep in the Grass

Okay, so I wrote about how we did the mad dash to the subway/PATH train (it connects Hoboken and NYC which is really neat), how I was dumb and wore flats with a broken foot, and how we almost didn't get our rental car. A lot of stuff happened in between that mess and I need to speak about it.

My teachers are really nice and didn't assign much homework. The catch is that AP testing is in a few weeks, so I still need to study. (I'm brushing up on my art history at the Smithsonian and Metropolitan.) So I lugged three review books and three fat binders full of notes, plus a notebook for a project that I'm working on. I'm pretty sure that weighs at least 60 pounds, and I'm not kidding. On top of that, I decided to forego a rolly suitcase in favor of my Vera Bradley duffle bag, which probably weighed 60 pounds in its own right. Which means that I had to lug both through the airport to get to NYC as well as through the whole debacle last night. Let me just tell you, 120 pounds is NOT THE RECOMMENDED 10% YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO CARRY ON YOUR BACK SAFELY. MY BAGS PROBABLY WEIGH MORE THAN ME AND I DIDN'T EVEN OVER-PACK. I'm so sure that they weigh more than me because my collar bone is sore (or broken). So that made the adventure last night extra painful. That's what I needed to share because it was really traumatizing.

Anyways, today we toured the capitol building, which is the Senate and House of Representatives. DC is really beautiful and had a ton of blooming flowers. It almost makes me feel ashamed of our garden, which is basically dead plants and thriving weeds. (But secretly I like it. Not that I like weeds, I just hate plants).

The weather is amazing, besides the fact that it was so windy I was surprised there wasn't a tornado. The cherry blossoms were blooming too and it just made everything a little bit magical.

So this is the capitol. Honestly it wasn't super enthralling but it was interesting. I SAW A COPY OF THE MAGNA CARTA AND ITS CASE IT WAS SO COOL. The architecture was through the roof awesome, especially because now I understand all the different time periods and styles of art.

Once again, sorry for the bad lighting on the bottom right. 

The star, I learned, is the center of Washington DC. Beneath it is a crypt and it was supposed to be for George Washington's remains. However, since he didn't want to leave Mount Vernon, the crypt is empty but if you rub your foot on it, that is supposedly good luck.

Look at my swaggy bro (his name is Timo). Magna Carta top left.

So we got out of there and then we ate lunch in the Senate cafeteria. I know that at school all cafeterias have bad rap but this cafeteria was GOOD and they had killer mac&cheese. And sushi. I love sushi. We moseyed on over to the Washington Monument. And that is how I fell asleep on the grass. My mom, Syd, Small Man and Timo to find water/tea/gatorade. They got liquid sustenance and then walked all the way up to the monument because they thought that my dad, James and I walked ahead of them. But we didn't. So we took a couple photos and then the grass looked comfy and my dad already fell asleep so then I did. Then my dad shook me awake and we trudged to the monument.

We finally found them (and WATER) and then made our way to the World War Two Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. Below is the evolution of my Padre and Small Man in the art of getting their photo taken.

World War 2 Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial was amazing!! Lincoln is HUGE! And his Gettysburg Address is engraved on the wall. I then proceeded to kind of lose my brothers, realize that they left with my dad and confirm that my phone really is a terrible piece of machinery.

We went to Shake Shack for dinner and it failed to live up to its hype. The custard was yummy, but I felt guilty eating it! Now I have to study if I want to amount to something in life. Goodnight.

The Long Uneventful First Day of Spring Vacation

Okay, so today I learned that when you are on vacation by yourself (or with a buddy), it's really easy to wing it. Like, wing it as in have no plan. When you have seven people trying to wing it, it just doesn't work. Unfortunately.

Here's the view! We stayed at the Marriott in Midtown, 18th floor. Apparently at 1 in the morning New Yorkers are as angry as ever, because they honked A LOT and I couldn't fall asleep.

So the plan was that we were going to wake up at seven. That really didn't happen because someone turned off the alarm...we ended up waking up an hour later. I really don't think it would have made a difference whether or not we had woken up at seven or eight because either way, it took us three hours to get out of the hotel room. Partly because we were slow and partly because we had no plan so mom was trying to make a plan.

After we finally left the hotel we headed to the World Trade Center. It's really tall. I know I could be more descriptive but it's really tall.

Really, really tall. And shiny. 

The 9/11 memorial was right next to it. We had to stand in line to get tickets (they're free! if you're wondering) so I dragged Small Man with me to the chapel across the street.

I believe it is called Saint Paul's chapel or something like that. It's quaint and has a cemetery in front. Apparently it was a gathering place after 9/11 as a memorial and mourning site. The line wasn't too bad for the memorial (so I recommend you go!) and there are two pools, the north and south pools, with the names of those who died.

It just so happens that I learned that my dad used to take United flight 93 often for work...he just so happened to not be on board that flight 93...trippy? More like sobering. The people who died weren't expecting to that day.

My dad also found the name of his old colleague on the wall of the South Pool...

My mom, Syd and I caught Les Misérables at the Imperial Theater at three. We almost didn't make it. It was a really amazing show (the kids were so cute!!!) but it was really sad. The characters really were miserable. So now when I think my life is bad, I can remember that at least it's not like 18th century France. 

This photo proves how horrendous DSLRs are when you are inside with little light. I apologize.

 Afterwards it was a mad dash back to the hotel for suitcases and then a power walk to the subway to get to Hoboken. I was dumb and decided to wear flats even though I had a broken foot and should have worn my cast/ugly boot thing. We almost didn't make it to the rental car place because they closed at eight and we got there at seven thirty...and then we drove through six states in four hours #winning.

So I guess this shows how disorganized the Wu family is. I think we should turn our name in to the "Wu Family" brand and our slogan should be "wing it."

We're in DC (kinda-ish suburbs) and it's like two in the morning I don't know why I'm still awake so goodnight.